OIL CONTAINMENT BOOMS

1.0     INTRODUCTION

There are some important changes in this chapter. The text has been revised and updated where appropriate. References to American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standards have been updated. New information on the use of containment booms has been added. Significant updates and revisions have also been made in the area of recent research and testing, in such areas as containment of heavy oils, research on fast-water containment, boom handling systems, measurement of boom buoyancy, and experiments to refine knowledge on the towing forces on booms.

Boom Types. Fire-resistant, Permanent, and Tidal Seal are included as standard boom definitions. The term Fireproof has been dropped in favor of Fire-resistant because the boom is generally degraded somewhat during the burn.

Boom Connectors. What had previously been known as the Quick (Z) connector is now referred to as the ASTM connector because virtually all "Z" type connectors are made to the ASTM Standard.

ASTM Standards. There are new ASTM Standards that apply to booms and some existing Standards have been reissued. These are noted where appropriate. In particular, the ASTM standard boom connector has been renamed, and a second standard connector adopted, the ASTM Slide connector.

Test Results. Containment boom test information is summarized in Section 8.

Data Sheet Entries.

• Booms are listed according to their use in Calm Water, Protected Water, and Open Water, so describing their use according to sea state is redundant. The letter designators C, P, and O are retained for sorting in the Database.

• Tow speed had been a single entry and now is split to record tow speed streamed and tow speed sweeping.

Most data listings that appeared in previous editions have been retained. This includes some products that are no longer manufactured but are still contained in equipment stockpiles. Some boom types that are no longer manufactured and are not likely to be retained in stockpiles have been deleted. All products that have been discontinued are identified. Several organizations have requested that we continue to list equipment that is out of production but retained in inventories because these items must still be identified in contingency plans. Further archival information will be made available at OilSpillEquipment.com.

(Forty-nine pages of text and references followed by seventy-eight pages of boom data listings and
nine pages of Boom Ancilliary data listings)